


That Tattoo, Your Last Bruise

by OnceYoungHearts



Category: Panic! at the Disco
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Tattoo Parlor, M/M, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-06
Updated: 2019-08-06
Packaged: 2020-08-10 17:01:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20138899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnceYoungHearts/pseuds/OnceYoungHearts
Summary: Ryan's tattooing at a convention with his apprentice driving him crazy. When the scheduled appointment cancels last minute, someone luckily volunteers to take the spot.





	That Tattoo, Your Last Bruise

Ryan was just finishing up the white highlights in the tattoo he was doing. It had turned out better than expected, considering the piece was much more simple than his usual style. He tended to enjoy elaborate, dark, portraits of faces the best, but sometimes it was nice to just do some simple, mindless flowers. Maybe with an animal skull thrown in to keep it interesting.

He was pointedly ignoring the bouncing ball of energy that he occasionally referred to as his apprentice. He was hovering over Ryan's shoulder like he had something to say, but Ryan was in no hurry to find out what that was. He finished up the last few dots and lines before giving it a good wipe down and taking a few photos for his instagram. That was honestly his least favourite part of the job, but he wouldn't have been nearly as well renowned if he didn't indulge his followers with shots of his work. It allowed him the freedom to make the art he wanted. When he thought back to the days of having to do whatever walked into the shop, mostly infinity signs and tribal patterns, he knew he never wanted to go back to that. 

The customer thanked him profusely and added a generous tip to the amount he asked for. His rates were already higher than usual for this convention, so it was no small amount of money. He waited until they'd walked off down the aisle before turning on Sisky. "What?" Ryan snapped a little harsher than he'd intended. Having to stay in a hotel room with the kid and then spend all day at the convention with him had worn through all of his patience. 

"Umm... So the thing is..." Sisky darted his eyes around to the tables around them. There were so many other artists working on tattoos, and people wandering up and down the aisles looking at portfolios, it could almost be believed that he was distracted and not just stalling what he needed to tell Ryan. Almost.

"Seriously Sisky, if you don't spit it out right this second-"

"Okay, okay!" He raised his hands in surrender. "Your next appointment cancelled." He flinched like he was prepared to be yelled at.

Ryan closed his eyes and sighed deeply. He rarely got no-showed or cancelled on last minute. It helped that he made people put down deposits to prevent against this type of thing, but it sucked nonetheless. He'd been really looking forward to doing that piece too; it was a kind of demonic-looking portrait where the hands were covering the empty eye sockets; it had come to him in a nightmare, and he'd really been looking forward to doing it. 

Now he had five hours to kill. He supposed he could take a walk up customer, but that really didn't sound appealing. He was halfway through making a mental pro/con list of just going back to the hotel and taking a nap when Sisky let out a whoop and punched the air. He'd been sitting backwards on the tattoo chair, straddling the backrest and staring at his phone. The artists working in nearby booths shot him dirty looks, and Ryan muttered apologies to them. 

"Ryyyaaannnn!" Sisky called, even though they were only a few feet apart in the small booth. "I found someone to take the design!"

"Oh. Really?" That was when he noticed that the phone Sisky had was actually Ryan's. "What did you do?" Ryan snatched the phone out of his hand and quickly read through the messages on the screen.

"Well I posted in your story that you had an opening and wanted to do that design still, and this guy answered saying he would take it! He's here somewhere already, so he should show up any minute." Sisky was grinning proudly like he'd found the cure for cancer. 

Ryan paused to think about it before nodding. "Well, cool. I guess that works." Sisky clapped his hands and started cleaning the chair and equipment for the next customer. Ryan took a seat behind the table that displayed his portfolio along with some business cards and stickers. He took the opportunity to stretch his back out from the cramped position he adopted while tattooing. He knew he should make more of an effort to sit up straight, but when he was focused on his work it was the furthest thing from his mind. 

Sisky had left him a sandwich to eat, and it was now being pointedly nudged in his direction. Ryan rolled his eyes and took a bite of it to appease Sisky, who seemed satisfied by that and went back to restocking the supplies. 

A guy stopped in front of the desk, looking at the banner that proclaimed Ryan's name that was hung on the back wall of the booth, and smiled hesitantly. "Hey, I was just messaging with your apprentice and he said you had a spot open?" 

Ryan stared at the guy for a few seconds, biting his lip. He was gorgeous, but didn't look very visibly tattooed. He was wearing a tshirt and shorts, and only a piece with piano keys and flowers was visible on his forearm. Ryan was instantly a little apprehensive of if this guy would be able to sit through the whole piece. 

Ryan realised he'd taken too long to reply. "Uhh yes!" He pulled out the sketch of the design he'd drafted. "Where were you wanting to put it?" The guy lifted his sleeve on the arm with the piano tattoo.

"Just upper arm I guess." Ryan nodded, the guy's arms weren't too scrawny, so he figured it would work. He placed the printed version of the drawing on his arm, seeing how it would wrap and feeling satisfied with the placement. 

"Looks good. I'll make a stencil, if you could fill out the forms Sisky has..." He looked around the booth and failed to spot his apprentice anywhere. He groaned. "Sisky!" He shouted, once again earning glares from the artists around them. 

Sisky popped up from under a table. "Oh, sorry! I dropped-"

"Doesn't matter." Ryan cut him off. "Could you get the release forms for..." He realised he didn't know the guy's name, and sheepishly gestured in his direction.

"Brendon." The guy supplied, taking Ryan's hand which had been intended as a vague wave in his direction and shaking it. Ryan took a beat to react before grasping Brendon's hand back and shaking it firmly. 

"Brendon." He repeated, their eyes briefly locking before Ryan dropped his hand and squeezed his way past Sisky to get to the stencil machine in the back of the booth. Sisky immediately started talking the guy's ear off. Ryan had set ground rules when he'd agreed to mentor Sisky that he demanded a base level of silence while he was working, but he had to let the kid expel some energy in the day otherwise he tended to call Ryan at ungodly hours of the night with long, rambling conversations. Letting him drive the customers insane was really the best option. 

When Ryan looked over at them again, Sisky had his pants rolled up and was showing Brendon all of the tattoos Ryan had done on him. Ryan rolled his eyes, as this was more than common practice for him. "Keep your pants on, Sisky." Ryan snapped. He muttered something back that sounded like "That's not what you said last night." but Ryan wasn't quite sure. Brendon smirked and ducked his head, pretending to focus on the paperwork he was still filling out.

"Hey, do you want to see my portfolio?" Sisky asked Brendon. 

"Leave the poor guy alone." Ryan said, glaring at him. He was being more obnoxious than usual, and Ryan dreaded the night ahead spent with him in a small hotel room likely jumping on the bed or crying over romcoms, as was him MO.

"It's fine, I'd like to see it." Brendon said, making Sisky the happiest guy in the world. Ryan was pretty sure he was in his twenties, but he honestly acted like a child. If he hadn't been so talented and dedicated to his art, Ryan never would have taken him on. There was also some external pressure from his friend Spencer who worked at his shop. Spencer had given a lengthy pitch for the kid, buttering up Ryan's ego about how it was a tragedy that he wasn't sharing his genius with the next generation of tattooers. As if Sisky wasn't only a few years younger than him. Spencer, of course, would have done it himself, but he hadn't been in the industry for as long as Ryan, and somehow at the end of their conversation Ryan had been agreeing to take on this apprentice, not really sure how he'd been convinced. Freaking Spencer.

He put the stencil on Brendon's arm, finding that it actually made a cool contrast with the flowers that were on his forearm. Ryan's own tattoos were pretty patchwork, none of them going together or making any sense when viewed as a whole, so he appreciated the style. He got Brendon to sit in the seat with his arm up on the rest and poured the inks he would use into the caps on his table.

"Alright, I'm going to start off with just a little line at the bottom so you can get a feel for it." Brendon nodded in agreement. Ryan stepped on the foot pedal, enjoying the familiar vibrations the machine sent through his arm. After he'd finished the inch-long line, he paused. "How was that?" 

"Oh god, it was horrible. I regret everything." Brendon said dramatically before breaking out in a grin. "It felt like nothing. You have a very gentle touch."

Ryan blushed despite himself. "Oh, uh, good. Thanks." 

Ryan zoned out, focusing solely on the black lines he was placing permanently into Brendon's skin. He would never be able to take his job lightly. Every single day he saw people with horrible tattoos, and even if those people loved the meaning or the story behind them, Ryan couldn't help but imagine how much better he could have done them.

By the time he realised Sisky was talking to Brendon, it seemed like he'd been at it for a while. Ryan was very familiar with the story he was telling, both because it involved him, and because he'd had to hear Sisky tell it to at least a dozen customers since it had happened. Ryan didn't even think it was that funny of a story.

"... and then Ryan told the guy to get out or he'd end up with a playboy bunny instead!" Sisky cackled madly while Brendon tried to keep his arm still and laugh at the same time.

"So I'm assuming he chose to leave?" Brendon asked.

"No! That's the best part. He tried to call Ryan's bluff!" Sisky wiped a tear from his eye and tried to catch his breath as Brendon's mouth slowly fell open. "Except it totally wan't a bluff, and Ryan tattooed a playboy bunny on the dude's ass. Oh my god it was amazing."

"No fucking way." Brendon gasped, and looked to Ryan for confirmation that this wasn't all a lie.

Ryan pursed his lips, not looking away from the tattoo, "Hey, he'd signed a release, so technically there was nothing he could do. And come on, he deserved it."

Of all the times that Sisky had told the story, no one had ever matched his level of enthusiasm about it. Brendon, however, gave him a run for his money. "Fucking right he did. Who the fuck asks for a swastica in 2019?" He looked furious, but the amusement from how Ryan had delt with him was still pulling at the corners of his mouth. "Does signing the release really mean you can just tattoo anything on us?" He asked Ryan after a moment, slight discomfort being just barely hidden behind his joking tone of voice.

"Of course not, but he didn't know that." Ryan deadpanned as Sisky howled with laughter. He had to lift the machine away from Brendon's arm as his shoulders shook with the laughter he could no longer supress. Ryan found it infectious and grinned along with them.

Once Brendon had managed to collect himself, Ryan finished the small amount of linework that was left and started switching out the liner for his shader. "Did you need to take a break?" It was Sisky who asked this to Brendon, since Ryan often forgot to check in on his clients. It wasn't for a lack of caring about their well-being, he just genuinely forgot that the skin he was working on belonged to people sometimes, so Sisky had taken over the role of caretaker.

"Naw, I'm good." Brendon smiled. Ryan nodded, setting to work on the shading. He figured he was about half done the piece, but he had no idea how long he'd been working, or when the convention closed for that matter.

"Sisky, how's the time?" He asked.

Sisky stopped in the middle of whatever sentence he'd been saying to Brendon to answer. "You've been going for ninety-five minutes and we have to leave in two hours and twelve minutes." Ryan nodded wordlessly, he'd trained Sisky well. The kid knew how Ryan wanted him to be as specific as possible. The one time Sisky had given him the time down to the second, intended as a sarcastic joke to show how ridiculous Ryan was, it had blown up in his face as Ryan thanked him and appreciated it. Being Ryan's apprentice required a certain level of acceptance for his quirks. Ryan opened his mouth to say something else, but before he got the chance Sisky was jumping to his feet and dashing out of the booth. He made it a few meters away before slamming to a halt and doubling back. "Sorry, Brendon, did you want coffee too?" Brendon furrowed his brow before nodding.

"Uh yeah, that'd be great. Thanks man." Sisky grinned and bounced off to find somewhere with coffee. Ryan hoped he managed to find something better than the watery shit the convention was serving. He'd made it pretty clear the day before that it was subpar, so he was pretty sure Sisky would go find a Starbucks or something instead.

Brendon waved his hand in Ryan's face, not close enough to block his view of his work, but close enough to finally get his attention since he'd been trying to talk to him and not getting any reaction. Ryan's shoulders slumped and he blushed lightly. "Sorry, I have a one track mind sometimes."

Brendon smiled at him, which was not typically how people reacted to Ryan's obliviousness. "It's cool. I can't relate, but it's a good quality to have in a tattoo artist I suppose. I'd be too busy talking and staring at all the people walking by to ever finish a whole piece." Ryan laughed, feeling the discomfort he usually felt when the clients tried to talk to him melt away. It was a lot of the same questions; how long have you been doing this, what made you choose tattooing, what do your parents think of it? He tended to give one word answers until Sisky got back to resume the conversations. They might not seem like questions that could be answered by one word, but Ryan was the master of shutting people down.

Ryan felt himself forming questions for this guy before his instincts could stop him. "Did you just happen to be in the convention when you saw the post, or what?" Brendon raised his eyebrows, and Ryan figured he could have worded the question a little less aggressively.

"Actually I heard about the convention in the first place because you posted you were coming to it, but by the time I emailed, your spots had already filled up. I figured I'd come anyway since I have family nearby, and I'd always wanted to see a convention. I really had no intention of getting any work done, but I've been uh, I've loved your work for a while so when I saw the opportunity to get this piece, I had to go for it." He'd moved his eyes from Ryan's face to another booth while he'd been talking, and his face had steadily grown more red to the point where his ears were now the same colour.

Ryan nodded, not sure which of the many questions that his answer had spawned to ask first. "Where are you from?"

Brendon smiled lopsidedly. "I'm actually from LA too." Ryan paused and put the machine down.

"Wait, seriously? Why didn't you just get a piece done at the shop there?"

Brendon bit his lip and scrunched up his eyes. "It's kind of embarassing."

Ryan laughed, "Now you have to tell me."

Brendon smiled. "Well, I kind of used to date one of your coworkers."

Ryan's eyebrows shot up. That was not the kind of answer he was expecting. He did a mental rundown of everyone who worked at the shop and there was really only one obvious guess. "Audrey?"

Brendon paused. "The piercer? Hell no, her hair is hideous. Plus, I'm very gay."

Ryan sputtered a bit, caught off guard by his bluntness. Well that opened up different options. He briefly thought of Sisky, but he was relatively sure he was straight, and Brendon hadn't seemed weird around him. He knew it wasn't Spencer, since he'd been with Jon forever. "Oh, so Dallon?"

Brendon tried to hide his flinch when he heard the name. "Yeah. It wasn't that long of a relationship. We burned hot and fast, but when it ended he made it clear he never wanted to see me again." He shrugged.

Suddenly Ryan was remembering that period a couple of years ago when Dallon had been bragging about having this hot boyfriend who was so good in bed. Ryan and he had never been that close, so he'd paid little attention to Dallon's stories. He did recall the tantrum Dallon had thrown when he'd been dumped though. "Right, yeah he's pretty good at holding grudges." Brendon laughed and nodded.

Sisky showed up holding Starbucks coffee as Ryan had predicted, and he and Brendon lapsed back into the easy conversation they'd been having as Ryan tuned them out and went back to work.

Before he knew it, he was wiping Brendon's arm down, feeling that familiar swell of accomplishment that came with seeing his art finished and looking exactly how he'd intended it to look. He took a few pictures and watched Brendon's face light up as he studied it in the mirror and fully took in the new state of his arm. Ryan covered the tattoo and Brendon pulled his shirt sleeve down over it, the smile still on his face. "Thank you so much, Ryan. It's seriously perfect." He said, giving Ryan the money that was owed.

"Hey, thank you for saving us and taking the spot. If you need a touch up at all, let me know and I'll find a day when the shop's closed for you to come in? Or, you know, if you ever want more work done?"

"Thanks, that'd be great." He looked like he wanted to go in for a hug, but eventually offered his hand for Ryan to shake.

Sisky looked back and forth between them. He suddenly patted his pockets with a worried look on his face. "Oh shit, I think I left my wallet at the coffee place."

Ryan glared at him, causing Brendon to laugh. "Well, I'll walk out with you. Thanks again, Ryan."

"Why do I feel like you're just trying to get out of cleaning up?" Ryan shouted at Sisky's back as the two walked away. It wasn't that much mess to clean up, and they still had one more day at the convention, so he figured he could just make Sisky come early in the morning to get everything set up again. He ended up sitting down on the chair in the booth and answering the texts and emails he'd missed during the day. He couldn't stop his mind from wandering back to Brendon, and hoping he'd take Ryan's offer to come by the shop sometime.

Sisky tapped his foot, staring down at Ryan's position in the booth. He had a huge grin on his face, and seemed to be waiting for Ryan to ask him what he was smiling about. Ryan found this endlessly annoying, so instead he got up and ignored Sisky, refusing to indulge him.

Ryan walked towards the exit, using his phone to order a car to pick them up and take them back to the hotel as Sisky sulked behind him.

They got all the way back to the hotel without either uttering a single word, and after the fiftieth dramatic sigh Sisky had let out, Ryan finally caved. "Fucking what? Just say what you want to say so I can go to bed." Ryan snapped, almost yelling.

Sisky's smile slowly grew before breaking out into a full grin. "Oh nothing. I just wanted to inform you that you're going on a date with Brendon next weekend."

Ryan's face softened as what he'd heard sunk in. "I knew you didn't forget your wallet. Well, I guess I should thank you."

Sisky smirked. "Yes, you should." He said as the pillow Ryan had thrown smacked him in the face.

"Thanks, Sisky."


End file.
